Accelerating finance for addressing loss and damage through the global stocktake

A two-year process, the first global stocktake (GST) was initiated at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and will end at COP28 in Dubai in 2023. Comprising a three-stage method of information collection and preparation, technical assessment and consideration of outputs, the GST modalities were decided at COP24 in Katowice in 2018, organizing work in the thematic areas of mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation and support. The GST has welcomed information from parties, non-party stakeholders, specialized United Nations agencies and more, with co-facilitators undertaking highly participatory activities through multiple-media formats. To call the first GST a success, however, the outcomes — that is, the political messages and call to action — must lead to real changes in the coming years, and before the second GST starts in 2026.

Finance, as much an enabler of climate ambition as it is a sticking point for multilateral deliberations, will be front and centre of the GST. Katowice decisions outlined that the GST would consider information at a collective level on the provision of support from developed to developing countries for climate action, including through finance, capacity building and technology transfer (together considered “means of implementation and support”), while it additionally referred to “the finance flows, including the information referred to in Article 2, paragraph 1(c)”. The scaled-up provision and mobilization of finance from developed to developing countries remains fundamental to the multilateral process as an expression of equity, historical responsibility and differentiated capacities and capabilities. However, it is the inclusion of Article 2.1(c) in the GST that sets the stage for a more comprehensive look at the diversity of relevant actors (at multiple scales) and their incentives and disincentives to finance climate action, and a wider enabling framework